Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Black Radish’s Clarified Margarita: sophisticated with a bit of science
Bartender Adam Robinson’s successful milk punch experiment
Clarified Margarita
Video:
DRINK RECIPE: Black Radish’s Clarified Margarita: sophisticated with a bit of science
Adam Robinson
I’ve been on this beat long enough to be confident in my declaration that clarified cocktails are damn delicious. So when I see a Clarified Margarita on the Black Radish menu, it’s a done deal.
Head bartender Adam Robinson weighs in. “Milk punch is something I hadn’t done before, so it really intrigued me. I went through gallons to start… many trials and errors in that.” The nearly translucent cocktail comes served with a large ice cube in a hefty glass garnished by a dehydrated lime. “With most milk punches, you’ll find a lot of people infuse with cereal. I feel like for clarification processes, there’s a point of trying to change the texture and taste of the cocktail. And then there’s the point of trying to clarify it for its looks. And those are two separate goals, and it boils down to your patience. With this drink, I think I leveled both of those out.”
Robinson likes simplicity — “straightforward cocktails that aren’t too show-boaty, but also have some intricacies to them.” Where you’d typically expect the brightly acidic flavors of lime and tequila, “here you’re going to get some different sweetness that you’re not used to in a margarita, that’s going to have you guessing.” He already knows the flavor I’m trying to pinpoint: vanilla. “We make our own vanilla extract. We have vanilla pods that soak in cognac, so I take one of those out and drop it in there when I batch it — and that’s what pulls it all together. And then with the milk profiling making it a thicker consistency, it sits on your taste buds longer so you get more depth of flavor.”
With a pineapple margarita as the base, Robinson uses the milk punch process to give the cocktail a silky mouthfeel. “What you’re going to taste is tequila, pineapple, vanilla…and then fresh squeezed lime juice comes through.” For his choice of tequila, “I just wanted an additive-free, nice, light blanco tequila. Then LALO came out — the nephew of Don Julio, the family name speaks for itself. There was some earthiness and a little bite to it that worked well with the pineapple and vanilla.”
Robinson has heard his fair share of consumer reservations. “Hesitating questions are: why is there milk in it? Why are you using milk? Milk?” He laughs. “That’s why I really like it, because I can open you up to something. This is a sophisticated cocktail that also has a bit of science to it… But you’re drinking, so you’re having fun.”
Black Radish
Black Radish’s
Clarified Margarita (for 12)
- 1 bottle of LALO tequila (750 mL)
- 8 oz Cointreau
- 8 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
- 14 oz pineapple syrup
- 325 ml whole milk
- Cognac-soaked vanilla bean
Batch the tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, vanilla bean, and pineapple syrup together, then pour into a container with whole milk. Let sit for 24 hours to clarify, then strain for 6-8 hours. Pour 3 oz into a mixing glass, add ice, stir for about 30 seconds and pour over a large cube. Garnish with a dehydrated lime.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Black Radish’s Clarified Margarita: sophisticated with a bit of science
Bartender Adam Robinson’s successful milk punch experiment
Black Radish’s Clarified Margarita: sophisticated with a bit of science
Bartender Adam Robinson’s successful milk punch experiment
Clarified Margarita
Video:
DRINK RECIPE: Black Radish’s Clarified Margarita: sophisticated with a bit of science
Adam Robinson
I’ve been on this beat long enough to be confident in my declaration that clarified cocktails are damn delicious. So when I see a Clarified Margarita on the Black Radish menu, it’s a done deal.
Head bartender Adam Robinson weighs in. “Milk punch is something I hadn’t done before, so it really intrigued me. I went through gallons to start… many trials and errors in that.” The nearly translucent cocktail comes served with a large ice cube in a hefty glass garnished by a dehydrated lime. “With most milk punches, you’ll find a lot of people infuse with cereal. I feel like for clarification processes, there’s a point of trying to change the texture and taste of the cocktail. And then there’s the point of trying to clarify it for its looks. And those are two separate goals, and it boils down to your patience. With this drink, I think I leveled both of those out.”
Robinson likes simplicity — “straightforward cocktails that aren’t too show-boaty, but also have some intricacies to them.” Where you’d typically expect the brightly acidic flavors of lime and tequila, “here you’re going to get some different sweetness that you’re not used to in a margarita, that’s going to have you guessing.” He already knows the flavor I’m trying to pinpoint: vanilla. “We make our own vanilla extract. We have vanilla pods that soak in cognac, so I take one of those out and drop it in there when I batch it — and that’s what pulls it all together. And then with the milk profiling making it a thicker consistency, it sits on your taste buds longer so you get more depth of flavor.”
With a pineapple margarita as the base, Robinson uses the milk punch process to give the cocktail a silky mouthfeel. “What you’re going to taste is tequila, pineapple, vanilla…and then fresh squeezed lime juice comes through.” For his choice of tequila, “I just wanted an additive-free, nice, light blanco tequila. Then LALO came out — the nephew of Don Julio, the family name speaks for itself. There was some earthiness and a little bite to it that worked well with the pineapple and vanilla.”
Robinson has heard his fair share of consumer reservations. “Hesitating questions are: why is there milk in it? Why are you using milk? Milk?” He laughs. “That’s why I really like it, because I can open you up to something. This is a sophisticated cocktail that also has a bit of science to it… But you’re drinking, so you’re having fun.”
Black Radish
Black Radish’s
Clarified Margarita (for 12)
- 1 bottle of LALO tequila (750 mL)
- 8 oz Cointreau
- 8 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
- 14 oz pineapple syrup
- 325 ml whole milk
- Cognac-soaked vanilla bean
Batch the tequila, Cointreau, lime juice, vanilla bean, and pineapple syrup together, then pour into a container with whole milk. Let sit for 24 hours to clarify, then strain for 6-8 hours. Pour 3 oz into a mixing glass, add ice, stir for about 30 seconds and pour over a large cube. Garnish with a dehydrated lime.
Comments